GEN News Highlights

Illumina Cuts Price for Individual Genome Sequencing Service by More than Half

Cost for a single person is down to $19,500 from $48,000.

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Illumina has dropped its price for individual genome sequencing to $19,500. Last month the company said that the cost for an individual sequencing his/her genome was $48,000.

Additionally, Illumina will offer a price of $14,500 per genome for groups of five or more participants using the same physician. Individuals with serious medical conditions for whom whole-genome sequencing could provide potential direct clinical value will be eligible for special pricing of $9,500 per genome.

In all cases, the service requires individuals to follow Illumina's physician-mediated process, which involves preservice consultation, consent, and a seven-day cooling-off period, with final genome data returned to the physician.

Illumina also announced its intention to create a World Genome Registry, a web-based resource for those who have been sequenced to record the date they were sequenced, at what coverage, and with which technology platform. This website will serve to keep the consumer genetics community updated on the current global numbers and status of individual whole-genome human sequences being generated. The company intends to create this resource and then turn it over to the community once it is established.

“If we can stimulate the generation of more individual whole-genome sequences and the comparison of those sequences to the public databases being populated by academia, the content of the databases can be enriched and the entire field accelerated,” remarks Jay Flatley, president and CEO.

Illumina launched its individual genome sequencing service in June 2009. Sequencing is performed in Illumina's CLIA-certified, CAP-accredited laboratory. The new prices set for individual sequencing services are a result of technology advances driving costs down, notes Flatley.

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